Last Friday

How I'd like to describe it with a straight face -

Rocked up to the Short and Sweet Gala - shook hands with Georgie Parker, collected the award, waved to my mate John Derum, got interviewed by Movie Extra then dropped ferkster back at the hotel.

What actually happened -

ferkster and I received a certificate for, effectively, long service with Short and Sweet. It's a Silver certificate for five years (in ferkster 's case, six years) of involvement with Short and Sweet. I kept thinking of it as the Paul Newman award for hanging around long enough. Stupidly I expected to be named next to ferkster , but then heard other names called out. Typical, I thought, my name's fallen off the list again. I'm standing here on stage with about twenty other worthy recipients and I'm going to be the one the audience will ask themselves later "What was he doing there?"

Of course, what had actually happened was the names were being called out in alphabetical order so I sheepishly stepped back into the light when my name was called, shook hands with Georgie Parker (she seems like a nice person) and collected my certificate and Ferrero Roche chocolates.

I did wave to John Derum and he acknowledged us (he's directing our next play and we had spent a pleasant evening with him discussing it) and ferkster and I were asked questions for the Movie Extra series on Short and Sweet (which I won't see, as we don't have cable) but the questions were about the plays in the Gala, which ones we liked and which one we thought would win. I chose the play John was in ("A Safe Pair of Hands" a very funny Gallipoli reminiscence written by Pat Sheil) - which turned out to be the ultimate winner.

More - including photos of our entry in Short and Sweet - on ferkster's blog.